MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Penny Wong is the Opposition Senate Leader, she joins me now. Welcome to AM, Senator Wong.
PENNY WONG: Its good to be with you
BRISSENDEN: Clearly the Government is frustrated that its agenda is blocked in the Senate. Are there any areas that you could work with the Government to find consensus?
WONG: The parts of their agenda which are blocked are those which are unfair. I mean lets understand what this Governments play book is. Its a special blend of arrogance and incompetence, thats what the Abbott Government has demonstrated. The arrogance of lying to people before an election, of handing down a Budget full of broken promises, an unfair Budget which will hurt Australians and now weve seen that compounded with the arrogance of Ministers threatening Australians with higher taxes as Mathias Cormann did, or with more cuts as Joe Hockey did, or with cuts to university research that Chris Pyne has done.
BRISSENDEN: Its not just the Government whos calling you out on this, isnt it. I mean business leaders are saying clearly this is having a bad effect on the overall economic environment. So how much responsibility do you have to take for blocking the Governments measures to try and repair the situation?
WONG: Id remind you that in fact a great majority of the Budget has passed including the Appropriations Bills. We have acted responsibly but Labors going to stand up for whats right. We are not going to compromise on our values and we have been consistent about that from day one. We are not going to allow whats unfair to pass but you raised a very important point and that is making sure that there is confidence in the economy. When youre a Minister you have to behave responsibly and not like a student politician. You have to be aware that your words have effect and what weve seen is the most extraordinary and incompetent display from Senior Ministers saying things such as Budget Emergency or Sovereign Risk. I mean, Andrew Robb coming out and telling Australians and the world that there is sovereign risk in Australia. And most recently Barnaby Joyce suggesting that the economic situation is like a financial melanoma.
BRISSENDEN: Doesn't Opposition have some responsibilities as well? I mean, you spent years criticising Tony Abbott for his oppositionist stand to everything, the same could be levelled at you now. WONG: And the difference between being in opposition and government is that as a senior person, your words have really substantial real economy effects. And it's like this Government doesn't understand that. They don't understand when SeniorMinisters talk about sovereign risk and financial melanomas.
BRISSENDEN: I think they're appealing to the national interest too, aren't they, in asking you to support their program.
WONG: How is the national interest served by senior Ministers talking down the Australian economy? Thats not good for confidence, its not good for jobs and its hitting the very people they are pretending to represent, the very people that they are hurting with the Budget that they are insisting on.
BRISSENDEN: But wont your continued opposition in the Senate effectively force the Government to cut in areas where it doesnt need Senate approval, such as in other areas of spending, University Research etc?
WONG: I would remind you there are a number of measures that we have passed, we have been consistent unlike the Government.
We have said very clearly that we are not for the dismantling of Medicare, we are not for putting higher education out of the reach of so many Australians, we are not for increasing the cost of living on Australians who are already doing it tough, we are not for attacking the pensioners and the vulnerable in our community and we are not for creating an underclass by taking unemployment benefits away from people under 30.
BRISSENDEN: But what are you for? I mean clearly there is a structural problem that needs to be addressed. What is your solution?
WONG: We are for a universal Medicare but if youre asking our approach, I can tell you a few things, the way we approached it in Government. Remember the sorts of things, the sorts of savings we took, the $180 billion worth of savings that we took while we were in Government where we did things like means tested the Private Health Insurance rebate, remember the furore that Tony Abbott created around that. We did means test the Family Tax Benefit.
But if you want a suggestion about Budget savings how about ditching the Paid Parental Leave scheme, a $20 billion plus spend. We dont actually know how much it is because months after the Budget the signature policy still hasnt been released in terms of its cost to Australians, well how about that as a start.
BRISSENDEN: The Government of course argues that, you know, the reason why were in this situation is because of the reckless spending of the previous Government, of your Government, if you dont address this structural problem, wont you have this same problem again when you get back into Government sometime down in the future?
WONG: The Government lies about that. We had between 2009 and 2012 expenditure growth that was under 2 per cent, the Government gets its very high expenditure growth by including the stimulus package. Are they really saying that we should have let Australia go into recession?
But this demonstrates the problem with the Government, its always someone elses fault. Have you noticed that? Its Labors fault, its the medias fault because youre not reporting it well, its Australians fault because they dont understand how good the Budget is, its been really summed up by Joe Hockeys poor people dont drive cars. These people dont understand the impact of what they are putting to the Australian people, will have on Australians.
BRISSENDEN: Well, it sounds like its going to continue then.
WONG: Well, we are not for turning on the things weve made clear are fundamental to a fair Australia.
BRISSENDEN: Specifically, on the Mining Tax legislation thats coming back this week, the Senate voted to get rid of it but insisted it keep the $10 billion in add-ons such as the Schoolkids Bonus. This was tied to the Mining Tax, the tax that failed to deliver the money you said it was going to and youre still asking the Government to spend the money that they dont have?
WONG: I think the Mining Tax discussion in the Senate really demonstrates that the Governments attitude. The arrogance of its my way or the highway. The Bill as you say was passed by the Senate, the repeal of the Mining Tax that theyve railed against for so long. They dont want the revenue; they dont want the tax, thats their policy. They got that but what they did, being too clever by half, was to load into that Bill, repeal of a whole range of programs which are important to Australians. The Schoolkids Bonus is one of them which was in fact funded not out of the Mining Tax revenue but more importantly things like the tax break on superannuation for millions of workers on low incomes. We made clear our position on that and we made that clear some time ago.
BRISSENDEN: Ok, well leave it there, Penny Wong thanks for joining us.
WONG: Good to be with you.
ENDS